Tag Archives: art

Today Esteban and I went to a lecture by German painter Charlene Von Heyl who was speaking at the USC Grad Art Department. Charlene was witty, humorous, and an artist who inspired me to get in the studio and just MAKE.

Having just returned from three months of making work on a prairie Charlene joked, yet sincerely told her audience that SHE WAS NOT HERE TO TALK ABOUT PAINTING.

Her large-scale works are spontaneous but not. abstract but not. subjects but not. Basically, a great big contradiction of sorts that woo the viewer with it’s compelling mysteries.

I fancied her drawings and collages the most.

After the 2-hr lecture, 4 of us met up with my best friend, dancer, Kupono Aweau, who has been on tour with the hit t.v. show So You Think You Can Dance. After a few months on the road, the dance force has returned to where they started, here in L.A. I squeezed a quick gelato moment in before Kupono leaves for San Diego tomorrow to continue the dance tour.

We enjoyed the funkiest of flavors at Scoops, a one-of-a-kind gelateria on heliotrope and a place girls make their boyfriends treat them to after a bad fight

Est and I had the olive oil+salty white chocolate, Kupono had his mango+zinfandel+lychee combo, former Miss Hawaii sisters, Jonelle and Ashley Layfield also had their choice of flavors. Jonelle mixed cofee, coconut, rum, and brown bread, while Ashley went with the chocolate mollasses which when eaten tasted exactly like a ranch or as she put it “saddle”. The tastes were right-on, and we enjoyed our individual amalgamations very much so.

Japan has done it again– having come up with another wonderful gadget for our world and this time it has to do with hearts, stars, and cucumbers. Yeah, that’s what I said…CUCUMBERS.

Here’s how it works:

When the cucumber is still small it is put into a heart shaped container and allowed to grow. In Japan they call it heart-stick and it can be found in supermarkets throughout Tokyo Midtown, Ropongi. Stars and Hearts appear when you cut the cucumbers and these shaped veggies can be used in your favorite stir-fry, or for the child in all of us it’s a perfect memento reminding us of how fun snacks can be!

As you know, Keith Haring was able to paint on anything and make it look beautiful. Having first started his career sprawling his prodigious line work in the New York subway system he went on to form an incredible international art career in his devastatingly short lifespan.

And that’s why when his art is ON the body, I expect a job well done.

Sorry little lady but sloppy here is a grave impropriety.

…then again it’s pretty hard to carry-on with grace when in the shadow of GRACE.

When Keith painted Grace Jones for her music video “I’m Not Perfect” the results were undoubtedly sexy:

A recent list of 20 celebrity art collectors has been released and FactoryFlux has chosen to highlight some of our favorite pairings of celebrities and the artists that they’ve chosen to collect. We’ve even crowned David Bowie as the “King” due to his exquisite taste!

NO. 1 DAVID BOWIE

This Hell-of-a-Man has chosen to spend the largest sums on the rarest works, from some of History’s darkest masters.

***
I like how Gothic your sensibility is Mr. Bowie.BOWIE

ELIZABETH TAYLOR and VINCENT VAN GOGH

“It’s wonderful to have Monsieur Vincent Van Gogh in my living room.” –Taylor

On Saturday I went on a road trip with a few friends of mine to visit the Milwaukee Art Museum. The special exhibition, Gilbert and George, consisted of approximately forty-five large-scale pictures and a selection of archival materials as well.

In addition to just seeing the show, we enjoyed the building itself designed by Santiago Calatrava and representing an image somewhat reminiscent of a large white sail boat that could potentially be made for outer space!

The Milwaukee Art Museum is just one of three museums in total to be hosting the exhibition which just traveled from San Francisco’s de Young Museum. For those of you not familiar with the work of Gilbert and George, a portion of the press release is attached below. For more info about the MAM or the exhibition alone please visit this link http://www.mam.org/gandg/.

“Gilbert & George have made art together since the 1970s to create startling and challenging images and pictures that confront the viewers with critical issues of our times. From the beginning, they wanted to communicate beyond the narrow confines of the art world, adopting the slogan “Art For All.” Almost all of the images they use are gathered within walking distance of their home in London’s East End. Yet, their pictures capture a broad human experience, encompassing an astonishing range of emotions and themes, from rural idylls to gritty images of a decaying city; from fantastical brightly colored panoramas to raw examinations of humanity stripped bare; from sex advertisements to religious fundamentalism.”

A view of the inside of the museum.

Fingle-Fangle, 2004
Gilbert and George

A Barbara Hepworth sculpture was on view in their permanent collection standing elegantly before a window that looked out onto the lake.

Justin Polera and Esteban Schimpf pose in front of the famous Mars Cheese Castle which one passes while traveling between Chicago and Milwaukee often to buy cheese curds.

It was a beautiful Sunday and we decided to go to an opening at the Suburban in Oak Park late this afternoon. Many people showed up and there were bratwurst’s galore for visitors to enjoy. The artist’s in the show included Cip Contreras and Matthew Rich; with such a large variety of work between the two men, the show really was quite interesting.

I saw a lot of friends who have been out of town this summer which made the event even more enjoyable–some having traveled to Brazil while some were returning from a short out of town visit to Michigan. As always Michelle and Brad organized a wonderful Sunday afternoon.

Also having a good time are Claire Pentacost and Ken Fandell, both professors at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Last night I attended the opening of “Nueva Austria: Work From Vienna” at the Plaines Project. Curated by Alexander Ferrando and Armin Lorenz Gerold the show includes work by Anna Barfuss, Verena Dengler, Armin Lorenz Gerold, Manfred Hubmann, and Georg Petermichl, all artists from Vienna. As the press release states “The artists comprising ‘Nueva Austria’ are being shown together on the basis of the proximity of thier social position in Austria to that of the Plaines Project’s proprietors here in Chicago. As young, newly emergent artists their work is defined more by impressions, inverstigation and interpretation than by statement and purpose,”

Overall, the show was exciting with works covering a variety of media, form, and sources. I had a great time, as is the usual outcome at any opening at the Plaines Project. Following the opening we enjoyed bratwurst’s from Maxwell Street Market just down the street from the exhibition space.

The pow wow taking place in the rear of the house once the opening was coming to a close. In the foreground Matt Brennan is seen chuckling away, while Ben and Armin converse in the background.